The footage shows hundreds of pigs being dumped alive and fully conscious on top of each other in open-topped trucks where they writhe like maggots as they fight to breathe. The animals are then driven alive to mass graves.

The Egyptian newspaper Al Masry AlYoum says, “When the lorry is filled with 400 pigs on average, it sets off for the burial ground in Abou Zabal. Once there, something like soft sand is sprinkled on the pigs inside the lorry. This material is made up of factory wastes. The pigs start to scream because of the searing pain until they die some 30 or 40 minutes later.”

I’ve embedded the video below but won’t be watching it, as I’d rather not spend the next few days sobbing beneath my desk.

At least when HSUS broke Chino California’s Hallmark slaughterhouse cruelty case, it was clear from the beginning that factory farming would pay a significant price. By contrast, it’s hard to envision anything positive happening in response to the situation in Egypt.

It’s just another reminder of the complete lack of status held by farmed animals, and the urgency of coming to their defense. (Thanks, Philip.)